A  BIOGRAPHICAL 
APPRECIATION  BY 

HARRY  V.  RADFORD 


Columbia  (HnitJewftp 

intlifCitpofMmgork 

THE    LIBRARIES 


Bequest  of 

Frederic  Bancroft 

1860-1945 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 


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ADIRONDACK  MURRAY 


A    BIOGRAPHICAL     APPRECIATIOX 


By 

Harry  V.  Radford 


ILLUSTRATED 


'Ne'w  '\Yop,"it'',  : ', 

'   'S'3o  Ei-oa'dzikty 

BROADWAY   PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

MONTREAL  LOKDON 

1905 


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Copyright,    i9»5, 

BY 

Hajutt  V,   Radfobu. 


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^  rj^HIS  simple  biographical  sketch  of 
a  national  character,  whom  I 
had  the  privilege  of  knowing  intimately, 
was  first  printed  in  the  Autimm,  1904, 
number  of  Woods  and  Waters.  It  was 
originally  written  with  no  other  object 
than  to  do  a  trifling  honor  to  the  memory 
of  my  illustrious  friend ;  but  soon  after 
its  initial  appearance,  a  number  of  my 
own  and  Mr.  Murray's  friends  asked 
me  to  put  the  bit  of  writing  into  book 
form,  and  offer  it,  between  substantial 

3 


NOTE 

covers,  to  the  thousands  of  outdoor  en- 
thusiasts throughout  the  EngUsh- 
speaking  world  who  revered  the  great 
sportsman-author  and  admired  his  writ- 
ings. 

I  was  the  more  wilUng  to  do  this  as 
Mr.  Murray  himself  had  expressed  the 
desire  that  I  should  be  his  biographer; 
and  we  were  even  planning  a  series  of 
visits  to  his  Guilford  homestead,  during 
which  I  could  take  copious  notes  cover- 
ing the  entire  period  of  his  life,  when 
that  life  was  taken  away,  and  with  it 
the  opportunity  of  gathering  the  fuller 
material  for  a  more  serious  work. 

The  present   sketch,  however,   is  be- 

4 


NOTE 

lieved  to  be  historically  accurate,  so  far 
as  it  goes;  and  I  am  heartily  glad  that 
while  the  great  man  was  still  in  the 
flesh,  I  was  able  to  gather,  during  our 
occasional  meetings,  sufficient  matter 
concerning  his  every  way  remarkable 
career,  to  make  possible  even  a  partial 
fulfillment  of  his  wish. 

For  some  of  the  photographs  here- 
with reproduced,  I  am  indebted  to  the 
surviving  members  of  Mr.  Murray's 
family.  Those  of  the  Guilford  Institute 
and  the  old  town  hall  were  kindly  sup- 
pHed  by  Mr.  C.  H.  Scholey,  editor  of 
The  Shore  Line  Times,  of  Guilford.    The 


NOTE 

remainder  I  took  during  different  visits 
at  the  old  homestead,  between  1900  and 
1905.  H.  V.  R. 

New  York,  Oct.  15  th,  1905. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mr.    Murray    in    1898 Frontispiece 

Facing 
Page 

The    Murray    Homestead,    near    Guilford, 

Conn 14 

The    Guilford    Institute 20 

The  Old  Town  Hall   at  Guilford 26 

Mr.  Murray  in  Shooting  Costume 34 

Murray's  Island,   Raquette   Lake 46 

Mr.  Murray  at  the  Age  of  Thirty-seven..  52 

The  Fireplace  in  the  Murray  Homestead.  66 

Mr.   Murray's   Favorite   Sporting  Arms. .  74 

Mr.  Murray  and  His  Eldest  Daughter...  78 


UNDER  the  wide  and  starry  sky 
Dig  the  grave  and  let  me  lie: 
Glad  did  I  live  and  gladly  die, 
And  I  laid  me  down  with  a  wUL 

This  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me: 
Here  he  lies  where  he  long'd  to  be; 
Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  sea. 
And  the  hunter  home  from  the  hill, 
— Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

"TTTHEN  the  Rev.  William  Henry 
Harrison  Murray — whom  the 
world  knew  as  Adirondack  Murray — 
expired  at  his  ancestral  homestead 
near  Guilford,  Corau,  March  5,  1904, 
in  the  same  room  in  which,  sixty- 
four  years  before,  he  first  saw  the 
light,  American  sportsmanship  lost  one 
of  its  most  conspicuous,  brilliant  and  in- 
fluential exponents,  an  orator  surpassed 
by  none  stepped  forever  down  from  the 
public  platform,  and  from  the  world  of 
polished  letters  there  vanished  one  of  the 

II 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

strangest,  strongest  and  most  fascinating 
literary  lights  this  coiintry  has  ever 
known. 

Among  sportsmen  Mr.  Murray  was  the 
Frank  Forester  of  his  day.  He  typed 
the  truest  and  most  enthusiastic  school 
of  sport  and  nature  lovers.  He  was  a 
sportsman  for  the  sport's  sake.  His 
prominence  was  preeminent,  his  position 
impregnable.  He  stood  head  and  shoul- 
ders, in  point  of  fame  and  achievement, 
above  all  of  his  contemporaries.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  great  sportsmen  America 
has  produced.  Even  his  presence  was 
commanding.  There  was  a  magic  in  the 
very  mention  of  his  name.     No  one  since 

12 


AN  APPRECIATION 
the  Civil  War,  unless  perhaps    Charles 
Hallock,  has  been  anywhere  near  so  dis- 
tinguished   a    sportsman    as    was    Mr. 
Murray. 

As  an  orator,  preacher  and  lecturer  he 
occupied,  in  his  day,  the  very  foremost 
place.  He  was  in  the  front  rank  of 
great  public  speakers  when  Wendell 
Phillips  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 
Sumner  and  Gough  and  Brooks  set  the 
country  on  fire  with  their  eloquence,  and 
there  are  those  who  listened  to  every 
orator  of  note  a  generation  ago  who  say 
he  was  superior  to  all.  There  has  per- 
haps never  been  an  American  clergyman 
who    held,  continuously,  such    vast    au- 

13 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

dienccs  iinder  the  spell  of  his  high  rhet- 
oric and  persuasive  delivery  as  did  Mr. 
Murray  during  the  years  that  he  occu- 
pied Boston  pulpits. 

In  the  firmament  of  American  letters, 
he  is  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  shin- 
ing with  a  peculiar  brilliance  all  his  own. 
His  stories  of  the  woods  and  of  woods 
life  are  classics,  and  will  live  as  long  as 
the  love  of  sport  and  nature — which  he 
did  so  much  to  cultivate — exists  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people.  That 
his  writings  have  passed  into  a 
permanent  place  in  the  affections 
of  the  people,  and  become  thoroughly 
nationalized,  could  not  better  be  shown 

14 


AN  APPRECIATION 

than  by  quoting  at  some  length  the  words 
of  an  old  Adirondacker  in  tlie  West, 
writing  a  review  of  Mr.  Murray's  works 
some  years  ago: — 

"There  hangs  my  rifle;  in  the  comer 
there  are  my  rods;  these  skins  upon  my 
floor,  that  pile  of  traps,  those  two  pad- 
dles, and  all  the  joy  and  health  and  fun 
that  they  have  brought  to  me — I  owe  it 
all  to  him.  It  was  his  writings  that 
brought  out  the  aboriginal  in  me,  taught 
me  what  a  wretched  being  a  puny,  sickly, 
scholarly  (?)  man  is,  and  drove  me  into 
the  wilderness  after  health  and  life, 
which,  thank  God,  I  fouod 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

"'Critics'  and  'reviewers'  do  not  and 
cannot  give  an  author  his  actual  place- 
ment in  the  world  of  letters.  The  people 
do  that ;  the  real  author,  like  the  president 
of  a  university,  should  be  independent  of 
and  even  indifferent  to,  temporary  con- 
ditions. He  should  hold  himself  aloof 
from  influences  and  tendencies  that  dis- 
tract and  degrade,  and  write  and  act  out 
of  the  forces  that  are  in  him,  and  which 
make  him.  He  should  neither  be  bribed, 
nor  intimidated,  nor  commercialised^' 
that  last  and  foulest  ditch  into  which  a 
literary  man  can  stumble.  And  Murray, 
as  it  seems  to  us,  has  kept  himself  in 
this  respect  absolutely  free  from  taint 

i6 


AN  APPRECIATION 

and    stain.      He    is    always    natural, 
genuine,    true. 

"Writing  on  subjects  which  strongly 
tempt  to  extravagance,  both  in  the  di- 
rection of  narrative  and  humor,  and  dur- 
ing   a    period    of    literary    development 
when  many  of  our  writers    have    been 
bribed  or  forced  by  the  prevalent  condi- 
tions  into  a  greater  or  less  sensationalism 
of  subject  or  treatment,  he  has  resisted 
all    pressures.     He  is  probably    so    con- 
stituted that  he  is  not  susceptible  to  the 
overtures  of  private    profit    or    popular 
fame ;  for  he  has  kept  on  writing  on  the 
highest    levels   of   English   composition, 
and  with  provoking  leisureliness,  slowly 

17 


< 


ADIRONDACK    MURIL\Y 

producing  a  few  volumes  which,  in  his 
generation,  must  look  for  readers  only 
among  the  most  refined,  the  genial  and 
cultivated  of  our  communities.  It  is 
likely  that  he  has  acted  thus  out  of  the 
habit  of  his  nature,  which,  during  the 
period  of  his  brilliant  career  as  a  public 
man,  made  him  apparently  indiflierent  to 
the  eddying  prejudices  and  opinions  of 
that  time,  and  gave  to  his  oratory  a 
frankness  and  fearlessness  as  unique  as 
it  was  noble;  but  if  calculation  had  been 
the  moving  cause,  it  is  certain  that  he 
could  not  have  acted  more  wisely,  for  his 
works,  because  of  their  excellent  and  at- 
tractive qualities,  are  sure  to  take  their 

i8  ^ 


AN   APPRECIATION 
place  in  the  permanent  literature  of  the 
country. 

"One  thing  is  most  remarkable.  It  is 
nigh  on  to  thirty  years  since  his  first 
volume  on  the  Adirondacks  was  issued 
from  the  press  of  Ticknor  &  Fields,  then 
the  foremost  publication  house  of  the 
country,  with  the  title  of  Adventures  in 
the  Wilderness.  Many  of  us  can  remem- 
ber the  furore  that  it  created.  It  told 
us  of  a  wilderness  at  our  very  doors,  of 
mountains  and  lakes  almost  numberless 
that  had  never  been  measured  or  named ; 
of  a  great  natural  sanitarium  for  those 
suffering  from  consumption  and  pul- 
monary conditions,  aUno^t  ip  sight  of  the 

19 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 
chambers  where  they  lay  stricken;  of  a 
natural  resort  for  the  overworked  pro- 
fessional and  business  man,  the  nervously 
exhausted       teacher,       and       overtaxed 
motherhood,   where  rest   and   revitaliza- 
tion  could  be  obtained,  and  of  a  paradise 
for  sportsmen  not  a  hundred  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  capital  at  Albany.     How 
strange  it  seems  to  us  of  to-day,  looking 
at  the  mammoth  hotels  and  thousands  of 
cottages  and  camps,  which  accommodate 
a  quarter  of  a  million  of  visitors  each 
summer  in  the  Adirondacks,  that  Mur- 
ray's delightful  revelation  of  the  woods 
and  wood-life   was   not    believed!     The 
cancaturist  and  cartoonist  pounced  upon 

20 


AN  APPRECIATION 

the  young  author  and  handled  him  with- 
out gloves.  Editors  of  great  journals 
called  the  book  a  'monstrous  hoax/  and 
noted  divines  declared  that  'he  had  dis- 
graced his  high  station  by  thus  practic- 
ing upon  the  people,  especially  the 
weakly  and  the  sick,  a  cruel  joke;'  and 
those  who  took  the  volume  as  true  and 
credible  and  started  northward,  were 
stigmatized  as  'Murray *s  Fools/ 

"But  the  little  book,  which,  as  Wendell 
Phillips  once  said,  'has  kindled  a  thou- 
sand campfires  and  taught  a  thousand 
pens  how  to  write  of  nature/  was  not  a 
'cruel  hoax,*  but  a  truthful  revelation,  as 
all  today  know,  and  Murray  had  not 

21 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

only  'discovered  a  wilderness  at  our 
doors,'  but  discovered  himself  and  a  new 
field  ready  for  American  literature  to  en- 
ter and  possess.  But  though  thirty 
years  have  passed  since  his  first  book 
was  published — and  when  before  has 
such  a  success  not  bred  imitators? — and 
though  all  his  writings  in  the  same  gen- 
eral vein  have  been  welcomed  with  in- 
creasing heartiness  by  the  reading  and 
lyceum  public,  nevertheless  he  remains 
to-day  as  he  always  has  been,  the  sole 
representative  on  the  platform  and  in  au- 
thorship of  a  style  of  description  and  in- 
terpretation of  nature  that  is  as  fresh 
and  vital  as  herself,  and  of  a  humor  that, 

22 


AN  APPRECIATION 

while  it  never  offends  the  most  delicate 
and  refined,  is  as  provocative  of  laughter 
as  humor  can  be.  In  explanation  of  this 
solecism  in  the  world  of  successful  writ- 
ing it  has  been  said  that  he  is  the  only 
American  that  is  master  of  expression 
and  woodcraft  both. .  But  this,  after  our 
way  of  thinking,  does  not  meet  the  case. 
It  is  an  explanation  that  does  not  explain. 
The  Old  Trapper's  explanation  would 
probably  be  that  he  'had  nateral  gifts  for 
the  work.'  And  after  our  own  way  of 
thinking  that  does   explain  it. 

"The  truth  of  it  is,  Murray's  nind  is 
a  many-sided  one,  and  his  moods  are  as 
multiform    as    nature's.      To    borrow    a 

23 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

figure  from  the  lapidist,  his  mind  is  cir- 
cular and  cut  into  facets,  and  each  facet 
is  a  mirror  to  reflect  what  stands  over 
against  it.  Whoever  will  read  his  works, 
questioningly  as  to  the  source  of  his 
power,  will  be  impressed  with  the  inter- 
pretive and  prophetic  character  of  his 
words  touching  nature  and  of  his  wide 
and  deep  knowledge  of  her.  His 
'John  Norton'  is  a  myth — a  creation  of 
his  imagination — for  he  has  told  us  so, 
and  indeed  we  can  credit  it,  because  there 
never  was  quite  so  good  a  man  as  the 
Old  Trapper  is,  and  never  will  be.  As 
Mr.  Murray  humorously  says:  'He 
had     the     privilege     of     making    hira 

24 


AN  APPRECIATION 

himself  and  so  he  made  him  perfect. 

"But  whence  came  John  Norton's 
knowledge  of  nature  and  men,  his  rever- 
ence and  humor,  his  strong  common 
sense  and  his  shrewd  wit,  his  intimate 
knowledge  of  nature  in  her  every  phase 
and  detail  of  expression,  his  tenderness 
of  feeling  and  strong  sense  of  right  and 
wrong,  so  old-fashioned  and  splendid, 
and  his  all-including  wisdom  which  so 
often  gives  to  his  utterances  the  finality 
of  supreme  authority — whence  came  all 
these  things  to  John  Norton  the  Trap- 
per? 

"It  is  not  the  least  of  our  surprises 
and   pleasures    in    reading   these   works 

25 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

that  when  we  are  fully  absorbed  in  the 
Old  Trapper's  sayings  and  doings,  in  the 
humor,  the  wisdom,  and  the  piety  of  him, 
so  that  we  are  actually  in  the  woods 
with  him  and  he  an  actual  and  real  hu- 
man being  with  whom  we  are  in  closest 
touch  and  sympathy,  we  suddenly  call 
to  mind  that  this  character,  this  Man  of 
the  Woods,  who  is  so  wholly  and  per- 
'  fectly  that  and  nothing  else,  is  a  creation 
i  of  one  born  in  New  England,  of  uni- 
versity education,  of  civilized  antecedents 
by  heredity  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years;  a  man  of  cities  and  crowds,  a 
finished  result,  in  manners,  education 
and. speech,  of  books  and  schools  and  of 

26 


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AN  APPRECIATION 

platform  appearances — that  test  and  tax 
of  highest  development.     And  yet  John 
Norton  never    slips    or    trips  in  speech, 
thought,  imagery,  or  habit  of  life.     He 
is  ever  the  man  of  the  woods,  an  old  type 
New  England  man,  with  all  the  strong 
characteristics  of  the  stock  he  represents, 
developed  into  a  splendid  manhood  far 
away  from  cities  and  trade,  the  conven- 
tional customs  and  habits  of  civilization, 
a  man  so  whole-hearted  and  wholesome, 
so  clean  and  true,  so  brave  and  tender, 
that  thousands  write  and  speak  of  him  as 
'Dear  Old  John  Norton.'     New  England 
never  had  pictured  a  nobler  embodiment 
of  the  finest  characteristics  of  her  ances- 

27 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

tral  stock.  Their  courage,  their  rever- 
ence and  piety,  their  shrewd  sense,  their 
humor,  and  love  of  justice,  all  live  again 
and  free  of  accompanying  defects,  in  this 
Trapper  of  the  Woods. 

"Of  Mr.  Murray's  relation  to  the  out- 
door life  of  the  nation  we  need  not 
speak,  save  in  grateful  acknowledgment 
of  the  services  he  has  rendered  to  the 
American  people  in  this  direction.  A 
rifleman,  an  angler,  a  canoeist,  a  yachts- 
man, a  trailer  and  naturalist,  an  old-time 
camper,  whose  camp  sites  almost  bisect 
the  continent  in  both  directions,  the  earl- 
iest advocate  of  outdoor  life  for  women 
and    children,  he    has    well  been  called, 

28 


AN   APPRECIATION 

'The  Great  Evangelist  of  Outdoor  Life 
for  the  People.'  We  remember  vividly 
what  was  the  condition  of  things  in  New 
England  when  he  began  to  preach  and 
write  and  lecture.  We  remember  when, 
as  a  young  clergyman,  he  organized  his 
first  rifle  club  in  the  old  conservative  hill 
town  of  Washington,  Litchfield  county, 
Conn.,  the  fame  of  which  speedily  be- 
came a  sensation.  We  remember  the 
gossip  and  scandal  because  he  shot  a  rifle, 
competed  with  the  members  of  his  con- 
gregation in  rifle  matches,  knocked  'sky 
balls'  on  the  village  common  for  the 
young  men,  members  of  the  baseball 
team,  shot  woodchucks  at  long  range  for 

29 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

the  farmers,  and  coasted  and  skated 
moonlight  nights  with  the  boys  and  girls 
of  the  town.  It  took  stiff  New  England 
grit  even  to  advocate,  much  less  prac- 
tice, in  those  days,  habits  of  thought  and 
conduct  which  to-day  are  universally  ac- 
cepted as  right  and  wise.  And  here  was 
a  young  man,  misunderstood  by  some, 
suspicioned  by  others,  abused  by  many, 
calmly  and  courageously  urging  the  right 
of  men  and  women  to  be  their  natural 
selves,  advocating  the  liberties  of  the  out- 
door life  and  world,  and  pleading  for 
that  splendid  physical  and  mental  devel- 
opment which  happy  exercise  in  the  open 
air  would  surely  bring  to  them.     What 

30 


AN  APPRECIATION 

changes  has  he  not  caused  and  helped  on- 
ward in  the  views,  the  opinions,  the  fash- 
ions, and  habits  of  the  people?  Looking 
backward  along  the  line  of  his  life  and 
his  writings,  the  changes  in  the  habits 
of  our  people  seem  incredible. 

"In  John  Norton  the  Trapper  he  has 
created  a  character  of  the  noblest  dig- 
nity and  grace.  So  true  is  it  to  the  old 
New  England  type  of  manhood  that  as 
a  portrait  it  has  historical  significance 
which  will  grow  and  deepen  with  the 
passage  of  time.  Were  it  not  for  the 
'Leather  Stocking'  of  Cooper,  'John  Nor- 
ton' would  stand  absolutely  sole  in  litera- 
ture ;  and  even  if  one  suggests  the  other, 

31 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

the  resemblance  is  one  of  environment 
and  not  of  nature  and  characteristics,  for 
Murray's  hero  is  as  much  nobler,  wiser 
and  more  impressive  than  Cooper's  as  his 
knowledge  of  the  continent  and  of  wood- 
craft is  superior.  Cooper  was  a  sailor, 
a  naval  officer,  and  his  sea  tales  are  of 
the  very  highest  order.  But  when  he 
came  to  write  of  the  woods  and  wood- 
life,  he  wrote  of  what  he  had  seen  and 
known  little,  and  hence  unsatisfactorily 
to  the  highest  criticism.  But  the  creator 
of  'Jo^^  Norton'  knows  the  woods  as 
Cooper  knew  the  sea — his  trails  from 
north  to  south  and  from  east  to  west 
have  never  been   equaled  by  any  other 

32 


AN  APPRECIATION 

sportsman,  naturalist,  or  geographer.  He 
has  seen  and  studied  every  phase  of 
forest  and  frontier  life,  and  the  char- 
acter of  both  races,  and  his  knowledge  of 
woodcraft — even  as  his  too  brief  notes  in 
Mamelons  prove — is  so  full  and  accurate 
as  to  make  us  old  campers  and  sports- 
men, who  know  something  of  the  woods 
ourselves,  wonder.  Among  the  moun- 
tains, on  the  plains,  and  in  the  recesses  of 
that  interminable  forest  of  the  north,  he 
moves  as  easily  from  scene  to  scene,  and 
with  as  much  facility  and  precision,  as 
Cooper  upon  the  sea.  When  we  reflect 
that  the  old  conditions  of  life  on  our  con- 
tinent are  fast  passing  av/ay;  that  there 

33 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

will  soon  be  no  frontier  life ;  that  the  only 
connection  that  the  children  of  the  future 
can  make  with  the  old-time  folk  will  be 
through  literature,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  America  owes  him  a  tribute  for 
preserving  to  future  times  a  portrait  of 
so  noble  a  character,  as  type  of  their  an- 
cestors, as  the  Trapper.  And  especially 
does  he  deserve  well  of  New  England; 
for  in  his  John  Norton,  more  than  in  any 
other  character  in  literature,  do  the 
strength,  the  nobility,  the  courage,  the 
reverence,  the  strong  common  sense,  and 
the  humor  of  the  old-time  New  England 
man  appear.  To  have  created  such  a 
character  and  in  such  connections  as  to 

34 


Mk.  Mi:rk.\v  in  Siiootixg  Costumk. 

Taken  \vhile  he  was   a    young   minister,  in 
Meriden,  Conn.,  about  1866. 


AN   APPRECIATION 

make  him  forever  popular,  while  the  love 
of  nature,  of  outdoor  life,  and  of  inter- 
esting reading  abides  among  us,  is  to 
have  done  what  New  England  should  not 
and  will  not  forsfet" 


I  knew  Mr.  Murray  well.  We  had 
a  peculiar  intimacy.  He  was,  in  many 
respects,  a  man  after  my  own  heart. 
There  was  no  fraud  or  pretense  in  his 
love  of  nature.  He  did  not  belong  to  the 
school  of  authors  who  write  of  outdoor 
life  because  it  is  the  literary  fashion  of 
the  day,  and  who  laboriously  put  together 

35 


ADmONDACK   MURRAY 

words  to  express  an  exaggerated  and  far- 
fetched admiration  for  the  wild  creation 
which  they  do  not  feel.  He  belonged  to 
no  school.  He  followed  no  Hterary  cus- 
toms. He  inhabited  no  ruts.  He  was 
himself  a  school,  which  had  a  thousand 
imitators,  but  no  rivals.  Nor  as  a  sports- 
man did  he  parade  before  the  public  his 
prowess  with  rifle  or  rod,  or  line  his  walls 
with  staring,  glass-eyed  victims  of  the 
chase.  He  could  have  done  so  had  he 
wished,  for  few  have  brought  to  earth 
a  greater  variety  of  North  American 
game  animals,  or  shot  them  in  regions 
more  widely  separated,  than  this  master 
of  marksmanship  and  Grand  Old   Man 

36 


AN  APPRECIATION 

of  the  field.  As  I  have  said,  he  was  a 
patron  of  sport  for  the  sheer  love  of  the 
sport,  caring  nothing  who  heard  of  his 
triumphs  in  the  field,  and  seldom  men- 
tioning the  taking  of  a  life  even  in  his 
discourses  upon  the  chase.  Of  his  sport- 
ing implements,  of  which  he  possessed  a 
fine  collection,  he  was  most  fond.  These 
he  loved  to  fondle  and  inspect.  A  thou- 
sand times  in  the  evening  of  his  life,  as 
he  sat  before  the  picturesque  old  fireplace 
in  his  beloved  New  England  farmhouse, 
would  he  glance  up  at  the  famous  double 
muzzle-loading  rifle  (made  by  Lewis,  of 
Troy)  and  the  historic  paddle,  which 
hung  above  the  mantel.  Few  guests  were 

37 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

bidden  to  his  venerable  homestead^  dur- 
ing his  latter  years  (though  Mr.  Murray 
was  a  man  with  whom  hospitality  was  a 
pleasure),  and  these  were  always  kindred 
spirits — men  who  he  knew  could  enjoy 
his  reminiscences  of  old-time  sport,  who 
had  a  relish  for  literature  and  a  contem- 
plative temperament,  who  could  appre- 
ciate and  admire  with  him  the  beauties  of 
his  rural  surroundings,  and,  above  all, 
who  were  enthusiastic  lovers  of  the 
woods.  I  was  one  of  those  who  knew  his 
home     as     an     occasional     visitor — the 


^  Built  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago, 
the  original  building,  on  the  same  spot. 
having  been  erected  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

3S 


AN  APPRECIATION 

youngest  of  his  group  of  intimates.  Aiid 
mine  is  one  of  those  "thousand  pens" 
which  he  "taught  to  write  of  nature" — 
albeit  the  lesson  is  as  yet  but  poorly 
learned. 

Mr.  Murray  came  of  a  sturdy  New 
England  ancestry  that,  since  their  landing 
in  America,  more  than  one  hundred  years 
previous  to  the  French  and  Indian  War, 
had  always  been  attached  to  the  soil — the 
stock  that  has  produced  most  of  the  great 
writers  and  thinkers  of  the  land.  The 
farm  on  which  he  was  bom,  April  26, 
1840,  and  where  he  died — popularly 
known  as  "The  Murray  Homestead" — 
had  been  in  the  possession  of  his  ances- 

39 


ADIRONDACK    MURR.'^Y 

tors  for  over  two  centuries  and  a  half. 
Mr.  Murray  was  proud  of  the  ancient 
family  ownership  of  his  lands,  and  was 
fond  of  retelling  to  his  children  the  fam- 
ily tradition,  which  had  been  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  concern- 
ing the  great  buttonwood  tree  which 
stands  a  short  distance  from  the  house, 
and  which  is  ^id  to  have  been  planted 
two  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago  by  an 
Indian  medicine-woman,  or  witch.  Tra- 
dition has  it  that  incantations  accompan- 
ied its  planting,  and  that  a  spell  was  put 
upon  it  which  would  never  permit  the 
land  on  which  it  stood  to  pass  perma- 
nently from  the  family  so  long  as  it  stood 

40 


AN  APPRECIATION    - 

and  lived,  but  that  should  it  ever,  while 
still  living,  be  felled  by  ax  or  blown  down 
in  a  storm,  the  farm  would  pass  forever 
into  the  hands  of  strangers.  It  is  need- 
less to  r.ay  that  that  tree  has  ever  been 
regarded  with  the  utmost  solicitude,  and 
the  greatest  care  taken  that  it  should  re- 
ceive no  injury. 

Mr.  Murray's  career  was  a  shining  ex- 
ample of  a  "self-made  man" — of  the  rise 
of  an  humble  New  England  farmer  lad 
into  worldly  prominence  and  worth. 
His  parents  were  poor,  but  respectable. 
At  seven  he  began  to  earn  his  own  living. 
At  fourteen  he  read  all  the  books  he 
could  lay  his  hands  on.     He  earned  the 

41 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

money  to  pay  for  his  tuition  at  the  Guil- 
ford Institute  by  threshing  wheat  and 
other  labors  upon  the  neighbors'  farms, 
and  it  is  said  that  his  services  were 
eagerly  sought,  as  his  great  strength  and 
activity  enabled  him  to  perform  a  larger 
day's  work  than  most  of  the  men  could 
do.  He  used  to  walk  bare-footed  each 
day  four  miles  from  his  home  to  the 
school  and  back  again  at  night — except 
when  he  consented  to  remain  over  night 
in  Guilford  and  room  with  one  or  other 
of  the  boys,  which,  because  of  his  happy 
disposition  and  popularity,  he  was  fre- 
quently importuned  to  do.  Indeed,  so 
highly  was  his  companionship  valued  that 

42 


AN   APPRECIATION 

it  is  said  there  existed  a  spirited  rivalry 
among  the  students  as  to  who  would 
next  entertain  young  "Bill"  Murray. 
Even  in  those  early  years  he  evinced  a 
decided  tendency  to  football,  woods 
roaming,  eloquence,  and  English  com- 
position. He  was  handsome  and  good- 
natured  and  powerfully  built,  full  of  life 
and  enthusiasm,  and  always  a  leader 
among  his  fellows. 

Those  were  the  days  of  the  old  New 
England  lyceum  and  of  debating  socie- 
ties. The  men  of  Guilford,  like  the  men 
of  scores  of  other  New  England  villages, 
had  their  local  society.  The  younger  ele- 
ment got  little  or  no  opportunity  of  par- 

43 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

ticipating  in  the  debates,  which  in  those 
days  constituted  a  form  of  popular  amuse- 
mento  This  state  of  affairs  greatly  in- 
censed the  young  fellows,  who  envied 
their  elders'  triumphs  of  the  platform, 
and  could  not  see  why  they  should  be 
shut  out  from  displaying  their  own  ora- 
torical abilities  before  the  villagers  in 
the  town  hall.  Discussion  ran  high, 
and  the  wrongs  of  the  young  men 
grew,  as  they  thought,  more  intoler- 
able. Finally,  the  dissatisfaction  broke 
out  into  open  rivalry  at  a  sug- 
gestion from  Murray.  "I  say,  boys," 
he  exclaimed  one  morning  as,  somewhat 
breathlessly,  and   sv/inging  his  arms  in 

44 


AN  APPRECUTION 

his  enthusiasm,  he  came  hastening  up 
to  a  group  of  his  schoolmates  who  were 
clustered  near  the  Institute  building  just 
previous  to  entering  to  begin  the  day's 
studies,  discussing  with  heat  an  unusually 
successful  debate  which  the  grown-ups 
had  conducted  before  a  large  audience 
the  evening  before,  "let's  all  go  up  to  J. 
Russel's  room  to-night  and  organize  a 
society  of  our  own."  The  plan  met  with 
clamorous  approval.  The  proposed  meet- 
ing was  held  that  evening  and  the  "Clio- 
nian  Society"  duly  organized.  Young 
Murray  became  one  of  the  officers.  Pub- 
lic debates  were  at  once  inaugurated,  and 
in  a  short  time  the  new  society  became 

45 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

so  popular  with  the  townspeople  that  the 
older  organization  was  forced  to  disband 
because  the  entire  patronage  of  the  vil- 
lagers had  gone  over  to  the  tyros.  The 
young  bloods  had  the  field  entirely  to 
themselves,  and  old  residents  of  Guil- 
ford say  that  for  several  years  the 
town  hall  was  packed  upon  every  occa- 
sion that  the  young  men  appeared  in  pub- 
lic. Out  of  that  little  country  debating 
society  have  come  a  number  of  notable 
orators.  One  of  them — the  greatest  of 
them — was  William  H.  H.  Murray. 

Murray  had  determined,  without  any 
encouragement  from  his  parents,  to  work 
his    way    through    college.     Soon    after 

46 


Murray's  Island,  Raquette  Lake. 

From  a  woodcut  in  Wallace's  "  Descriptive  Guide  to  the 
Adirondacks,"  edition  of  1S72. 


AN  APPRECIATION 

completing  his  studies  at  the  Institute,  he 
set  out  on  foot  for  New  Haven,  nineteen 
miles  distant  from  his  farm — and  entered 
Yale  College.  He  had  $4.68  in  his 
pocket  and  two  small  carpet-bags  in  his 
hands — one  with  his  few  books  and  the 
other  with  his  few  clothes.  Murray's  old 
neighbors  at  Guilford  have  told  me  that 
in  order  to  save  his  boots  from  wear,  he 
was  wont,  when  walking  back  and  forth 
between  Guilford  and  New  Haven,  to 
carry  them  under  his  arm,  not  putting 
them  on  until  about  to  enter  town. 
When  he  started  for  Yale,  some  of  the 
neighbors  said,  one  to  the  other:  "Won- 
der what  Bill  Murray  thinks  he  can  make 

47 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

of  himself?"  But  "Bill"  Murray  paid 
little  attention  to  their  jests.  He  had, 
as  he  said,  "taken  hold  of  the  hope  of 
knowledge  with  a  good  grip,  and  he  held 
on."  During  the  summers  he  worked 
hard  upon  his  own  and  neighboring 
farms  in  order  to  earn  money  to  pay  for 
his  college  education,  and  each  fall  he  was 
back  at  Yale,  a  close  student,  a  prodig- 
ious reader,  always  good-natured,  full  of 
sport,  and  loving  nothing  better  than  an 
opportunity  to  spend  an  afternoon  afield 
with  a  gun  or  along  some  familiar  an- 
gling stream.  His  classmates  at  Yale 
included  Franklin  McVeigh,  Joseph 
Cook,     Professor    Ely    and    Governor 

48 


AN  APPRECIATION 

Lounsbury,  of  Connecticut.  The  late 
William  C.  Whitney  was  in  his  class  for 
some  time,  but  graduated  a  year  after 
Mr.  Murray. 

A  single  fact  will  illustrate  the  rapid 
progress  which  Mr.  Murray  made  in  his 
studies  while  at  college.  Fitz-Greene  Hal- 
leck,  the  immortal  author  of  "Marco  Boz- 
zaris/'  was  a  fellow  townsman  of  Mur- 
ray's, and  though  much  his  senior  in 
years,  they  were  intimate  friends,  mutual 
admirers  and  frequent  visitors  at  each 
other's  homes.  It  is  said  that  Halleck 
taught  Murray  much  of  literature  and 
poetry.  Recently  the  story  had  gained  cur- 
rency   that    Murray    had    learned    hi? 

49 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

Greek  from  his  illustrious  neighbor,  and 
that  the  former  often  walked  out  from 
New  Haven  to  Guilford  to  take  Greek 
lessons  from  the  great  poet.  The  facts  are 
quite  the  contrary.  Halleck  knew  little 
of  Greek  until  instructed  in  this  lan- 
guage by  his  young  friend,  Murray,  who 
early  in  his  college  course  became  so 
proficient  that  he  was  able  to  translate 
for  Halleck  a  letter  which  the  latter  had 
received  from  the  Greek  government 
stating  that  the  poem,  "Marco  Bozzaris," 
had  been  translated  into  Greek,  printed 
in  that  language  and  widely  distributed 
among  the  Greeks  with  the  object  of 
increasing  their  patriotism. 

50 


AN  APPRECIATION 
At  Yale  Murray  won  prizes  for  de- 
bating and  essay  writing,  and  upon  his 
graduation  in  1862  entered  an  advanced 
class  of  the  East  Windsor  Theological 
Seminary,  continuing  his  studies  under 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Edwin  Hatfield,  of  New 
York  City,  serving  as  his  assistant  pastor 
until  the  latter's  resignation.  From  New 
York  he  was  called  successively  to  Con- 
gregational pulpits  in  Washington, 
Greenwich  and  Meriden,  Conn. 

While  at  Washington,  Conn.,  an  inci- 
dent occurred  which  is  amusing,  and 
which  showed  the  marked  personality 
of  the  man  rather  more  markedly  than 
the  decorous  parishioners  of  that  con- 
Si 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

servatlve  village  believed  to  be  edifying. 
Mr.  Murray  never  lost  an  opportunity 
to  spend  a  day  gunning  on  the  hills  sur- 
rounding the  village.  One  evening  he 
was  unusually  late  in  returning.  A  re- 
ligious service  was  scheduled  to  occur 
that  night  in  the  church,  and  the  parish- 
ioners, as  usual,  assembled  in  the  edifice, 
eager,  as  ever,  to  hear  Mr.  Murray's 
beautiful  discoursings  upon  spiritual  sub- 
jects. The  time  set  for  the  commence- 
ment of  the  service  arrived,  but  no 
preacher  appeared.  The  congregation 
waited  and  wondered  and  grew  impa- 
tient. Questioning  glances  were  ex- 
changed, and  whisperings  grew  into  ani- 

53 


W.  H.  II.  Mlrrav,  age  37. 

Phologra])li  taken  in  1877,  when  Mr.  Murray  was 

at  the  zenith  of  his  Boston  fame  as 

preacher  and  author. 


AN  APPRECIATION 

mated  conjecturing  as  to  what  could  have 
befallen  their  handsome  and  talented 
young  pastor.  Even  displeasure  was  be- 
ginning to  be  expressed  among  those 
v/hose  tempers  were  the  easiest  ruffled, 
at  being  thus  brought  from  their  homes 
for  nothing,  when  the  door  of  the  church 
burst  suddenly  open,  and  in  strode  the 
belated  preacher,  quite  heated  from  hur- 
rying, dressed  in  his  shooting- jacket  and 
velveteen  breeches,  and  carrying  in  his 
hand  his  game-bag  and  fowling-piece. 
Without  making  excuse  for  his  unortho- 
dox g^rb,  or  changing  the  same  for  min- 
isterial vestments,  he  quietly  hung  the 
game-bag  over  the  back  of  a  convenient 

53 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

chair,  leaned  the  gun  against  the  wall, 
mounted  the  pulpit,  and  opened  the  serv- 
ice. At  the  close  he  begged  forgiveness 
of  his  hearers  for  having  kept  them  so 
long  waiting,  explaining  that  it  was 
wholly  unintentional  on  his  part,  but  that 
he  had  strolled  so  far  in  his  eager  pur- 
suit of  game  without  noting  the  flight  of 
the  hours  that  it  was  impossible  for  him 
to  get  back  to  the  village  at  the  time  set 
for  the  service;  in  fact,  he  had  come 
direct  from  the  field  to  the  church  with- 
out pausing  to  taste  a  mouthful  of  sup- 
pei",  in  order  that  he  might  not  delay  the 
congregation  a  moment  longer  than 
could  possibly  be  helped. 

54 


i 


AN  APPRECIATION 

From  Meridcn  Mr.  Murray  was  called 
to  the  Park  Street  Church  in  Boston,  then 
one  of  the  most  prominent  pulpits  in 
America.  It  was  in  Boston  that  he 
earned  his  greatest  fame,  and  won  his 
richest  laurels  as  preacher,  orator  and 
lecturer. 

To  say  that  his  career  as  a  pub- 
lic man  from  this  moment  was  phe- 
nomenal, does  not  convey  an  idea  of  the 
meteoric  swiftness  and  brilliance  of  his 
rise  as  a  man  of  national  fame  and  im- 
portance. He  fairly  took  Boston  by 
storm.  Within  a  few  weeks  after  his 
advent  in  the  city,  the  entire  country  was 
talking  of  the  wonderful  powers  of  per- 

55 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

suasion  and  masterly  oratory  of  the 
young  clergyman  who  had  but  recently 
come  from  an  obscure  Connecticut 
farm. 

While  yet  in  his  twenties  he  was  com- 
posing sermons  which  were  being  circu- 
lated and  quoted  throughout  the  entire 
continent,  and  even  in  Europe,  and  which 
to  this  day,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  forty 
years,  are  constantly  reprinting.  At 
thirty  he  was  considered  one  of  the  intel- 
lectual giants  of  America ;  and  within  the 
next  few  years  was  receiving  a  salary 
and  perquisites  of  $15,000  to  $20,000, 
besides  earning  $10,000  additional  an- 
nually upon    the    lecture   platform.      A 

56 


AN  APPRECIATION 

single  lecture  upon  the  Adirondacks,  he 
delivered  before  over  five  hundred  audi- 
ences. For  several  years  he  edited  and 
published  the  Golden  Rule,  a  weekly, 
"one  of  the  few  brilliant  literary  and 
artistic  religious  papers  of  its  day." 

In  the  spring  of  1869  his  first  work 
— Adventures  in  the  Wilderness;  or 
Camp  Life  in  the  Adirondacks — v/as 
published  by  Ticknor  &  Fields,  which 
gave  him  his  well-known  sobriquet.  It 
became  at  once  the  most  popular  book 
of  the  day,  reached  an  enormous  circula- 
tion, and  created  what  is  probably  the 
most  remarkable  movement  of  hunters, 
anglers  and  campers  towards  an  Ameri- 

57 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

can   wilderness   in   the  history  of   sport 
on  this  continent.^ 

Murray's     triumph     was     now     com- 
plete.     Besides    enjoying    a    popularity 
in  the  pulpit  not  surpassed  by  that  of  ^ 
Henry    Ward    Beecher,    who    was    his 


'The  "Murray  Rush"— still  a  familiar 
memory  in  the  Adirondacks — began  early  in 
the  summer  of  1869,  and  continued  unabated 
for  four  or  five  seasons,  during  which  the 
Woods  were  so  filled  with  visitors — every  one 
of  whom  seemed  to  carry  a  copy  of  Mr.  Mur- 
ray's book — that  the  few  rude  hotels  then  in 
existence  were  utterly  inadequate  to  accom- 
modate the  crowds ;  and  guides  were  equally 
insufficient.  Log  cabins,  barns  and  tents  were 
converted  into  lodging  places ;  every  old,  bat- 
tered scow  boat  or  dugout  that  could  be 
resurrected  commanded  a  fabulous  rental ; 
and  all  the  farm  boys  who  could  possibly 
be  spared  from  home  were  pressed  into  serv- 

58 


AN  APPRECIATION 

warm  friend,  he  was  the  literary  lion 
of  his  day.  Because  of  his  magnificent 
physique  and  handsome  countenance, 
his  affable  and  gracious  manners,  his 
distinguished  presence,  his  deep  learn- 
ing and  his   religious   fervor,   his   corn- 


ice as  guides,  at  wages  not  infrequendy 
double  that  received  at  present  by  the  most 
experienced  woodsmen.  Hundreds,  who,  upon 
reading  Mr.  Murray's  narrative,  had  left  at 
once  for  the  North  Woods  without  even  writ- 
ing ahead  for  accommodation,  upon  arriving 
at  the  terminus  of  some  stage-line  entering 
the  Wilderness — perhaps  after  a  nerve-wrack- 
ing ride  of  forty  or  fifty  miles  over  an  abom- 
inable corduroy  road, — finding  that  neither 
guides,  boats  nor  quarters  were  procurable, 
were  obliged  to  return  at  once,  bag  and  bag- 
gage, to  the  railroad.  And  yet,  despite  the 
extraordinary  numbers  and  consequent  con- 
fusion,   the    fullest    good    humor    prevailed. 

59 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

panionship  was  courted  by  the  lights  of 
the  country.  The  greatest  states- 
men, the  most  noted  divines,  the  most 
prominent  authors,  the  leaders  of 
thought  and  the  moulders  of  opinion, 
sought    acquaintance   with   the    remark- 


The  Wilderness  has  never  since  presented  a 
scene  of  such  picturesque  animation.  Many 
of  the  visitors,  drawn  toward  the  Adiron- 
dacks  by  the  entrancing  pen-pictures  of  the 
young  Boston  clergyman,  were  women  and 
children ;  and  all  seemed  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  keen  sport  and  frolic  which  was 
so  well  known  to  characterize  their  great 
preceptor,  Murray.  Every  incoming  stage- 
coach from  the  railroad — then  thirty  to  sixty 
miles  distant — was  loaded  down  with  sports- 
men and  outers,  carrying  rods  and  rifles,  and 
bent  on  seeing  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
wonderful  new  region  of  health  and  happi- 
ness   which   Murray  had   so  wonderfully  de- 

60 


AN  APPRECIATION 

able  young  clergyman.  Dinners  were 
given  in  his  honor  by  the  most  distin- 
guished personages  in  Boston  and  the 
country  at  large.  Emerson,  Longfel- 
low, Whittier,  Holmes,  Hawthorne, 
Halleck,     Agassiz,     Prescott,     Beecher, 


scribed ;  while  behind  the  coaches,  creaking 
and  groaning  beneath  their  burdens,  lum- 
bered the  slower  moving  wagons,  heaped 
high  with  the  trunks,  portmanteaux,  tents, 
bales  of  blankets,  and  other  baggage  of  the 
sight-seers.  Throughout  the  wilderness 
proper  the  same  gay  activity  was  every- 
where in  evidence.  Boatloads  of  jolly 
campers  and  sportsmen,  with  their  guides  and 
outing  impedimenta,  were  constantly  passing 
and  repassing  along  the  principal  waterways, 
which  in  those  days  were  the  only  avenues  of 
communication  leading  towards  the  choicest 
sporting  sections  of  the  Woods.  The  carries 
and   trails    were   thronged.     Every   log-cabin 

6i 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

Phillips,  Fields — to  name  his  personal 
friends  and  acquaintances  would  be  to 
call  the  roll  of  the  great  men  of  his 
time.     For  ten  years  every  Sabbath  ser- 


halfway  house,  situated  on  lake  or  river  bank, 
which  made  any  pretension  at  all  of  providing 
either  food  or  shelter,  was  at  all  times  the 
centre  of  a  motley  gathering, — sure  to  be  in- 
teresting as  well  as  picturesque, — in  which 
sportsmen  and  sportswomen  from  different 
States,  togged  out  m  every  shade  and  degree 
of  fashion,  and  lack  of  it,  guides,  lumber- 
men, trappers,  and  an  occasional  red  Indian, 
mingled  in  a  true  backwoods  democracy  that 
was  at  once  pleasant,  amusing  and  inspiring. 
The  spirit  of  fellowship  and  hospitality  ex- 
tended to  every  camp,  and  wherever  smoke 
curled  upward  from  any  shore,  it  was  a  sign 
of  welcome  to  any  who  might  chance  to  pass 
that  way. 

Thousands    who    came    to    this    region    for 
the  first  time,  attracted  by  Mr.  Murray's  book, 

62 


AN   APPRECIATIOxNT 

mon  that  he  preached  was  printed  and 
sent  broadcast  throughout  the  land. 

There  was  one  gathering  of  notables 
at  which  Mr.  Murray  was  present 
which  I  shall  mention,  for  the  reason 
that   it   had   a  most   important  bearing 


found  in  the  Wilderness  charms  not  even 
enumerated  in  that  volume,  and,  forming  an 
attachment  for  the  country,  repeated  their 
visits,  year  after  year,  becoming  gradually  more 
interested  in  the  region  itself,  and  in  the 
preservation  of  its  natural  attractions,  than 
in  the  taking  of  game  or  fish ;  so  that  in 
time  there  grew  up  the  present  splendid 
body  of  men  and  women — the  life-guard  of 
the  Wilderness — who,  from  their  long  asso- 
ciation with  the  Adirondacks,  their  known 
love  for,  and  efforts  in  behalf  of,  its  forests 
and  their  wild  inhabitants,  and  their  interest 
in  its  history,  literature  and  legendary  lore, 
have  come  to  be  designated  as  "Adirondackcrs" 

6i 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

upon  his  later  literary  work.  It  was 
a  dinner  given  by  the  famous  pub- 
lisher and  literatus,  James  T.  Fields, 
to  a  number  of  prominent  authors. 

Emerson  was  there.    During  the  even- 
ing  the   conversation    turned    upon    the 


— a  title  that  is  a  just  pride  to  those  who  can 
claim  it.  It  is  to  these  men  and  women 
that  the  public  rightfully  look  to  form  and 
guide  the  policy  of  the  State  with  reference 
to  the  Adirondack  Park,  and  to  exercise  a 
check  upon  any  who,  through  selfishness  or 
ignorance,  might  endanger  aught  of  its  nat- 
ural attractiveness  or  value  to  the  people. 

The  Murray  Rush  gave  birth  to  the  guide 
book  period  in  the  Adirondacks,  which  fol- 
lowed closely,  as  a  natural  sequence,  early  in 
the  seventies.  The  few  hotels  were  enlarged, 
and  new  ones  built  to  meet  the  ever-increas- 
ing demajid  Hundreds  of  sturdy  woodsmen 
adopted  the  honorable  and  not  unremunera- 

64 


AN   APPRECIATION 

question  as  to  what  constituted  a  truly 
"great"  story.  Mr.  Emerson  defined  it 
as  one  which  would  evoke  both  tears  and 
laughter.  The  definition  impressed  Mr. 
Murray.      Later,    discussion   arose   con- 


tive  profession  of  guides;  and  from  that  time 
on  the  Adirondacks — which  previous  to  the 
appearance  of  Murray's  magic  book  had  re- 
mained an  unvisited  waste,  known  only  to  a 
few  adventurous  sportsmen,  hunters  and 
trappers — continued  to  grow  in  general  popu- 
larity and  fame,  until,  at  the  present  time,  with 
railroads  penetrating  to  its  choicest  localities  and 
good  carraige  roads  radiating  in  many  directions, 
with  hundreds  of  hotels — many  of  them  pala- 
tial in  construction  and  furnishing — and  full 
as  many  public  and  private  camps,  some 
of  which  are  not  less  luxurious,  these 
Woods  are  annually  visited  by  not  less  than 
450,000  persons,  and  their  glories  have 
reached  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  th^  e^rth. 

65 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

cerning  the  reason  why  "great"  stories 
such  as  Mr.  Emerson  had  defined  were 
never  written  which  did  not  contain  at 
least  one  female  character.  After  most 
of  the  company  had  been  heard  from, 
"Parson"    Murray   was    called    upon   to 


For  all  this,  in  large  measure,  we  have 
pioneer  Murray  to  thank.  Some  persons,  as 
Charles  Hallock  quotes,  have  deprecated  the 
"ruinous  publicity"  given  by  Mr.  Murray  to 
the  sporting  attractions  of  the  Adirondacks, 
lamenting  that  this  exceptional  region  should 
have  "fallen  from  that  estate  of  fish  and  soli- 
tude for  which  it  was  originally  celebrated." 
But,  while  it  is  true  that,  to  a  large  degree 
the  wildness  and  exclusiveness  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks have  been  modified  by  the  myriad 
changes  which  have  come  to  this  region  since 
1869,  and  while  to  some  extent  the  forests 
have  been  thinned  and  the  game  diminished, 
yet  the  writer  holds   the  view,   that,   for  the 

66 


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AN  APPRECIATION 
give  his  views.  He  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  it  MTOuld  be  possible  to  compose 
a  story  that  would  be  up  to  Mr.  Emer- 
son's definition,  and  yet  which  would 
not  include  a  single  female  character. 

Fields  never  forgot  what  Murray  had 
said,  and  whenever  he  met  the  latter  he 
was   sure   to   remind   him   of   the    state- 


increased  facilities  of  ingress  and  improved 
accommodation  which  his  exploitation  of  ilie 
Adirondacks  brought  about,  thereby  enabling 
thousands  to  enjoy  the  incalculable  benefits 
to  body,  mind  and  soul  which  life  in  these 
Woods  affords,  where  formerly  they  were 
within  reach  only  of  the  individual,  Murray 
has  put  humanity— and  especially  the  people 
of  New  York  State  and  of  the  United  States 
—under  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  can  not  be 
easily  estimated,  and  can  less  easily  be  re- 
paid 

67 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

ment  he  had  made  at  the  dinner,  and  to 
urge  him  to  write  such  a  story.  In 
course  of  time  Murray  composed  the  first 
story  of  his  series  of  ''Adirondack 
Tales,"  with  the  great  character  of  John 
Norton  the  Trapper  as  their  central 
figure.  He  published  it  in  his  Golden 
Rule.  Fields  read  the  story  and  went  at 
once  to  congratulate  its  author.  "Mur- 
ray, you  have  done  it !"  he  exclaimed ; 
"you  have  written  a  story  that  is  up  to 
Emerson's  definition — for  I  have  both 
laughed  and  wept  over  this  one ;  and  you 
have  not  introduced  a  woman  into  it." 
All  during  these  years  Mr.  Murray 
was  devoting  every  moment  which   he 

68 


AN  APPRECIATION 

could  spare  from  his  clerical  duties  to 
the  pursuit  of  outdoor  sports,  to  travel, 
and  to  literature.  In  1864  he  made  his 
first  trip  to  the  Adirondacks,  continu- 
ing to  visit  this  region  annually  until 
1877.  Even  in  the  wilderness,  his  activi- 
ties were  on  a  large  scale.  He  cruised 
on  countless  waters,  trailed  far  and  wide, 
and  carried  his  explorations  into  the 
wildest  and  remotest  corners  of  the 
Great  Forest.  During  the  fourteen  sea- 
sons that  he  patronized  this  region,  he 
brought  a  large  following  of  personal 
friends  with  him  into  the  Woods,  his  im- 
mediate party  sometimes  numbering  as 
high    as    twenty    or    thirty,    including 

69 


ADIRONDACK  MURRAY 
guides ;  for,  as  might  be  expected  in  one 
so  genial  and  generous  of  nature,  Mr. 
Murray  was  fond  of  human  companion- 
ship, and  human  companionship  was  fond 
of  him.  Among  those  who  thus  accom- 
panied him  into  the  Woods  (many  of 
whom  were  of  national  fame,  chiefly 
clergymen  and  authors)  was  the  late 
United  States  Senator  O.  H.  Piatt, 
of  Connecticut,  who  for  many  years  was 
one  of  his  best  beloved  camp-mates  and 
sporting  associates. 

Not  always  did  Mr.  Murray  travel  in 
company  when  in  the  Woods,  for  often 
he  entirely  abandoned  his  friends,  sev- 
ered communication  with  even  the  rude 

70 


AN  APPRECIATION 

civilization  of  the  forest  encampment, 
and,  with  a  single  guide  for  companion, 
plunged  into  the  most  labyrinthian  re- 
cesses of  the  then  little-known  Wilder- 
ness, where  for  days  and  weeks  at  a  time 
he  buried  himself  in  the  untrodden 
wilds. 

It  was  during  these  solitary  expeditions, 
doubtless,  that  he  gathered  most  of  that 
wondrous  fund  of  woods-lore  and  woods- 
wisdom  which  gives  to  his  literary  pro- 
ductions the  stamp  of  the  master,  and  it 
was  chiefly  while  engaged  in  such  ex- 
plorations that  he  performed  those  feats 
of  strength,  agility,  hardihood  and  en- 
durance,  and  those  exploits   with   rifle, 

71 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

rod,  paddle  and  oar,  of  which,  to  this 
day,  the  traveler  in  the  Adirondacks  will 
encounter  so  many  tales  and  anecdotes, 
especially  among  the  old-time  guides  and 
woodsmen  who  are  able  to  boast  the  dis- 
tinction of  having,  at  one  time  or  an- 
other, companioned  with  this  Patron 
Saint  of  Adirondackers.  Mr.  Murray's 
favorite  camp  site  was  undoubtedly  the 
rocky  little  island  in  Raquette  Lake,  near 
the  mouth  of  Marion  River,  which  now 
goes  so  appropriately  by  the  name  of 
Murray's  Island,  and  which  in  future 
years  is  sure  to  become  a  famous  liter- 
ary shrine  and  a  gathering  place  of 
sportsmen    and   nature    lovers    from    all 

72 


AN  APPRECIATION 

quarters  of  the  continent.^  His  favorite 
guide  was  the  great  woodsman,  "Honest 
John*'  Plumley,  of  Long  Lake,  who  be- 
came celebrated  as  the  leading  character 


*  Murray's  Island,  fortunately,  is  State  land, 
a  portion  of  the  proposed  but  long  delayed 
Adirondack  Park,  which,  when  all  its  area 
has  been  purchased  by  the  State  (as  it  should 
be  at  once),  will  include  approximately 
3,475,000  acres,  and  will  be  the  grandest  pub- 
lic domain  in  the  world.  It  was  upon  this 
islet  that  Mr.  Murray  for  many  years 
had  his  permanent  camp  known  as  "Terrace 
Lodge."  Here  he  frequently  found  time  to 
compose  portions  of  his  earlier  books,  and 
from  this  point,  as  a  centre,  he  set  out  upon 
his  numerous  excursions  into  the  deeper 
wilderness.  Some  persons  have  attempted  to 
supplant  the  historic  and  significant  name  of 
Murray's  Island  (given  it  in  loving  recogni- 
tion and  remembrance  by  the  people)  with 
thtf  pretty  but  far  less  worthy  one  of  Osprey 

73 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

in  Murray's  first  book,  Adventures  in  the 
Wilderness.  From  time  to  time  he 
brought  out  a  new  vohime  of  Adirondack 
stories,     all     of     which     have     obtained 


Island;  and  against  this  apparent  forgetful- 
ness  of  a  great  man  I  make  earnest  pro- 
test. Wallace,  the  Adirondack  annalist,  says 
in  his  Descriptive  Guide  (page  430,  edition  of 
1897)  :  "This  island  was  so  named  (Murray's 
Island)  because  for  3'ears  it  was  the  favorite 
camping  place  of  W.  H.  H.  Murray,  author 
of  several  charming  volumes  on  the  Adiron- 
dacks.  And  yet,  neither  lake  nor  mountain 
"  commemorates  the  name  of  him  who  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  world  to  this  grand  sanita- 
rium and  pleasure  ground !"  Let  us  at  least 
insist  that  his  name  shall  be  perpetuated  in 
the  single  little  island  to  which,  more  than 
any  other  spot  in  the  Wilderness,  he  was  at- 
tached, and  which  (he  has  himself  told  me) 
he  would  be  best  pleased  to  have  bear  his 
name. 

74 


Mr.  Murray's  Favoritk  Sporting  Arms. 


The  flintlock,  formerly  his  father's,  and 
the  gun  of  his  boyhood  ;  the  .44  cal.  Win- 
chester repeater,  which  he  carried  on 
most  of  his  hunting  trips  in  later  life  ;  the 
heavy  tournament  rifle,  with  telescope, 
with  which  he  performed  his  greatest 
feats  of  marksmanship;  and  the  old, 
highly-ornamented  double  Lewis  of  Troy, 
(muzzle-loading)  rifle,  "  Never  Fail," 
which  he  acquired  in  early  young-man- 
hood and  continued  to  use  as  a  hunting 
arm  long    after    the   introduction   of  the 


breech-loader. 


AN   APPRECIATION 

a  wide  circulation,  though  the  book  b)) 
which  he  is  best  known  is  his  first 
work. 

At  the  age  of  forty  he  retired  from 
the  clerical  profession,  and  for  seven 
years  traveled  almost  continuously  in 
Europe,  Africa  and  America,  visiting 
every  State  and  Territory  of  this  coun- 
try, and  penetrating  far  into  the  recesses 
of  northern  Canada.  He  wrote  copi- 
ously, but  always  well,  and  besides  issu- 
mg  numerous  books  on  sport,  travel,  his- 
tory and  education,  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  the  prominent  magazines  and 
newspapers.  "Sport,  history,  nature  in 
all  her  moods,  romance  and  story  capit- 

75 


ADIRONDACK    AIIJRRAY 

iilated  to  his  fascinating  pen."  Again  he 
took  the  lecture  platform,  and  toured 
the  country,  speaking  on  a  variety  of 
subjects,  but  more  often  reading  extracts 
from  his  pubHshed  works.  "How  John 
Norton  the  Trapper  Kept  His  Christ- 
mas" he  had  read  before  half  a  thousand 
audiences,  receiving  as  high  as  $ioo  to 
$500  a  night  for  his  entertainment.  An 
idea  of  the  immense  popularity  of  his 
writings  may  also  be  had  from  the  fact 
that,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  his 
profits  from  the  sale  of  the  "Adirondack 
Tales"  alone  had  amounted  to  $58,000. 

The  last  twelve  years  of  his  life  Mr. 
Murray   had   lived   almost   continuously 

76 


AN   APPRECIATION 

on  his  Guilford  homestead,  spending  his 
time  in  cultivating  his  farm,  and  in  the 
private  education  of  his  four  daughters, 
and  devoting  all  of  his  leisure  to  author- 
ship and  the  revision  of  his  published 
works. 

The  latter  comprise :  "Adventures  in 
the  Wilderness/'  "The  Perfect  Horse/' 
"Adirondack  Tales''  (including  "The 
Story  the  Keg  Told  Me''  and  "The  Man 
Who  Didn't  Know  Much"),  "Holiday 
Tales"  (including  "Hozu  John  Norton 
the  Trapper  Kept  His  Christmas"  and 
"John  Norton's  Vagabond"),,  "The  Old 
Trapper's  Thanksgiving/'  "The  Busted 
ex-Texan;  or,  the  Story  of  the  Man  Who 

77 


ADIRONDACK    MURRAY 

Missed  It,"  "Mamelons"  "Ungava/* 
"Daylight  Land,"  ''How  Deacon  Tub' 
man  and  Parson  Whitney  Kept  New 
Years,  and  Other  Stories,"  "Lake  Cham- 
plain  and  Its  Shores,"  "Deacons,"  "The 
Old  Apple  Tree's  Easter,"  and  numer- 
ous collections  of  sermons,  lectures,  ad- 
dresses and  humorous  sketches.  His  last 
work  was  published  but  a  few  years  be- 
fore he  died,  and  was  a  description  of 
"How  I  Am  Educating  My  Daughters/' 
and  received  a  notable  reception  at  the 
hands  of  the  public. 

Mr.  Murray  was  the  same  ardent 
sportsman  and  passionate  lover  of  na- 
ture up  to  the  last.    Even  during  the  final 

78 


?>Ir.  Murray  and  His  Eldest  Daughter. 
Taken  in  1896. 


AN  APPRECIATION 

years  of  his  life  he  occasionally  allowed 
himself  a  fox-chase  in  the  woods  and 
lields  surrounding  his  farm,  continuing 
to  be  an  expert  marksman  until  in- 
creasing years  and  failing  sight  inter- 
fered with  his  once  perfect  powers.  Nor 
did  he,  as  the  years  passed  by,  lose  any 
of  the  courtliness  of  manner  or  splendid 
presence  (never  so  fine  as  when  with  his 
crown  of  white  hair  he  was  seen  as  a 
familiar  figure  driving  through  the 
streets  of  Guilford  accompanied  by  one 
or  more  of  his  young  daughters)  which 
had  in  earlier  life  contributed  so  much 
to  make  him  a  national  celebrity.  Until 
the  end,  he  was  always  the  same  cheer- 

79 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

ful,  energetic,  enthusiastic  Murray  that 
he  was  so  well  known  to  be  "when  the 
life  within  sparkled  white  to  the  brim, 
and  all  flowers  were  lilies,  and  all  lilies 
were  sweet,  and  the  woods  were  striated 
with  perfumes  which  blew  from  the 
meadows  of  heaven." 

The  home  life  of  his  latter  years  was 
indeed  beautiful.  His  love  for  his  chil- 
dren and  theirs  for  him  was  most  tender 
and  touching.  There  is  a  picture  before 
my  mind,  as  I  write  these  words,  which 
I  count  one  of  my  treasures  of  memory, 
and  which  time  will  never  efface.  It  is 
of  a  great  man,  in  the  evening  of  life, 
seated  in  his  ancient  and  weather-worn 

So 


AN  APPRECIATION 

New  England  farmhouse,  before  the 
blazing  fire,  enjoying  the  generous  heat 
from  a  giant  oak  trunk,  "which  the  Lord 
had  felled,"  and  which  required  all  of 
his  own  great  strength  to  get  through 
the  door  and  roll  to  the  fireplace.  It  is 
"The  Children's  Hour."  One  daughter 
is  encircled  by  his  arm,  another  leans 
against  his  shoulder,  while  the  youngest 
of  the  family  sits  contentedly  upon  his 
knee,  and  the  eldest  no  farther  away 
than  is  necessary,  in  a  chair  by  herself. 
The  contrast  between  the  strong,  white- 
haired  man,  massive  in  form  and  feature, 
seasoned  with  a  wide  knowledge  of  the 
world,  and  browned  and  furrowed  by  a 

8i 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 

life-time  of  exposure  in  the  open  air, 
and  the  fair,  intelligent  children  clinging 
about  him,  jealously  shielded  from  the 
world's  taint,  modest  and  unselfish, 
graceful  and  light-hearted,  is  perfect  and 
highly  fascinating.  Firelight  and 
shadow  complete  the  effect — a  superb 
chiai'oscuro. 

Mr.  Murray  died  surrounded  by  his 
family.  His  last  word  was  an  inquiry 
for  his  eldest  daughter,  whom,  through 
failing  sight,  he  could  not  see.  Ac- 
cording to  his  request,  he  was  buried 
on  the  old  homestead,  to  which  he  was 
so  much  attached,  under  the  historic  but- 
tonwood  tree  before  referred  to.     There, 

82 


AN  APPRECIATION 

on  his  ancestral  farm,  but  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  gray  old  house  where 
in  life  he  had  spent  so  many  happy  hours 
in  the  companionship  of  his  wife  and 
daughters,  and  where  I  had  more  than 
once  known  his  hospitality ;  beneath  the 
boughs  where  song-birds  build  their 
nests  and  sing  their  morning  hymns  and 
evening  lullabies ;  surrounded  by  the 
odorous  woodlands  through  which  as  boy 
and  man  he  so  often  roamed  in  highest 
glee,  and  almost  within  sight  of  the  blue 
waters  of  Long  Island  Sound  (not  quite 
two  miles  distant),  repose  the  mortal  re- 
mains of  one  of  the  greatest  writers  and 
thinkers,  one  of  the  noblest  orators  and 

83 


ADIRONDACK   MURRAY 
preachers,  and  one  of  the  keenest  sports- 
men and  most  devoted  lovers  of  nature 
America  has  ever  known. 


84 


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